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Published: December 4th 2005
A starting point
Getting ready for a puck.My sportsmanship was put to the test today by attending another famous Atlantan game. This time, I had an opportunity to see the Atlanta Thrashers ice hockey game, which is playing the Carolinas Hurricanes. I was embracing myself to stepping into the Phillips Arena threshold, after riding the unconvinient MARTA from Lindbergh Center where Jon parked his car.
I have to admit, although I lived in Iowa for several years and hung out with lots of Minnesotan and some Canadians, ice hockey was the least sport I was interested in. Looking back, I
wish I had more enthusiastic attitute towards the game, so I wouldn't be so lost in the ocean of Thrashers fans today. Upon our entrance to the arena, we were given a pair of hockey slaps and a "Welcome to the Blueland" Atlanta Thrashers booklet.
Hockey slaps? What the heck is that?
Hockey slaps turn out to be a pair of inflatable bags, resemble the shape of hockey sticks, which to be slap to each other to create some slapping noise, which was quite interesting to see and to listen to. My first impression of seeing the ice hockey arena was that it was glowing in
The modern gladiator
This is when a player got injured from fighting over a puck. the dark. Like a bug with a nearby black light, I was hypnotized and liked the game athmosphere almost instantly. I throughly enjoyed what I saw, especially with our seats to be one of the best seats throughout the arena.
A major difference between college sports and professional sports is that the professional sports are more commercialized than college ones. Everything was so grand and glamorous, including the prizes (a free lease Volvo?!) and disco lights. The fans are more diverse and less unified, unlike college sport fans that has a common ground of attending the university.
Some things I observed throughout the game:
* Even though this is the ATLANTA Thrashers, but none of the players are originally from Atlanta (or State of Georgia). Majority of them even are NOT from the States, out of 25 players at the roster, only three are from the USA. The rest are mostly Canadians, and Russian, Sweden, Czech, or Slovakia.
* The arena is cold, so next time I should dress up in more layers. It makes sense; if it is warm, then the ice would melt, and we would end up with watching a water polo match
with sticks instead?
* The majority of the sound from the game itself, apart from the cheering crowd, were from the beating sticks and puck or sticks to sticks. So, the best adjective to describe the game sound was "clicky" or "mousy" (like the clicking sound of the computer mouse).
* The sound system played many tunes from an organ, that is somewhat reminded me of the Adams family or halloween tunes.
* "Professional game" has a new meaning in ice hockey games. Where else could you find an American sport, where conflicts such as smacking each other's head from the opposite team, which ended up with a fight occurs in the middle of the arena of cheering crowds? I saw some good knuckle sandwich being made tonight. Fans are crazy as well, they were thirsty for blood shed before their eyes. A modern day form of gladiator?
* "Icing" is a term of a fault, not the thing you put on top of a cake.
* The Thrashers could grow on you. They hung two Thrashers heads on each side of the score board above the ice rink, and every time Atlanta Thrashers scored,
the speakers were blaring some spirit tunes and the Thrashers were becoming alive and they breathe fire. The actual size of the head (according to my booklet): 15 feet long, 6 feet diameter, weight 450 lbs, and suspended by a 1/2 ton chain hoist.
* At the intersections of seats, ushers have a red stop sign, which signals when people need to stop from proceeding to/from seats. Oh yeah, and they like to yell at people as well.
* Players move like dancing across the ice. Even to watch the refs is fun, because they move so fast and stop so abruptly, without skidding or falling all over the place.
* A flying puck could be dangerous. Many times, there were warnings announced to make attendees beware that although the Arena put some protective net and plastic wall around the ice rink, there are still possibilities that a puck will fly outside to the seating areas.
The game ended tie 3-3, and the overtime was given in form of four to four Sudden Death. Within half a minute, the Hurricanes scored, giving a win 4-3 over the Thrashers.
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